Mine waste finds new life as source of rare earths

SA, Sweden and Australia are at the forefront of a push to transform piles of mine waste and by-products into rare earths vital for the green energy revolution, hoping to substantially cut dependence on Chinese supply.

Prices of the minerals used in products from electric cars to wind turbines have been strong, and a rush to meet net-zero carbon targets is expected to further boost demand.

Europe and the US are scrambling to wean themselves off rare earths from China, which accounts for 90% of global refined output.

Six advanced projects outside China, including one operated by Swedish iron ore miner LKAB, are now being developed to extract the materials from mining debris or by-products.

Australia’s RMIT University estimates there are 16.2-million tonnes of unexploited rare earths in 325 mineral sands deposits worldwide, while the US Idaho National Laboratory said 100,000 tonnes of rare earths each year end up in waste from producing phosphoric acid alone.

The six projects, processing material from mineral sands, fertiliser and iron ore operations, are targeting output of more than 10,000 tonnes of key elements neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide by 2027, according to data from consultants Adamas Intelligence.

That, Adamas says, is equivalent to about 8% of expected demand for the two rare earths, vital for making permanent magnets to power EV and wind turbine motors. Potentially they will cut the expected deficit in the materials by more than 50%, data from Adamas and the Reuters analysis showed.

“These projects are the low-hanging fruit in the supply chain at the moment,” said Ryan Castilloux, MD at Adamas. “There’s more demand growth coming in the near to medium term than production, so there’s an opportunity for these readily accessible sources of supply.”

Speed is of the essence

Recovering rare earths from waste is much quicker than setting up new projects. A new mine that state-owned LKAB is planning to develop at Europe’s largest known deposit of rare earth oxides could take up to 15 years. In contrast, its project to isolate rare earths from byproducts from two existing iron ore mines in northern Sweden is due to kick off in four years.

Material from an initial stage of iron ore processing, which is usually deposited in a tailings dam, will be retained and go through further treatment stages.

“We want to make sure we extract as much value as possible, and when we come to the critical minerals, we have those in our ores already,” said David Hognelid, LKAB’s chief strategy officer for special products.

The company will extract phosphorus for fertiliser, fluorine and gypsum in addition to rare earths.

In SA, Rainbow Rare Earths is also planning to process stacks of waste from years of phosphate mining.

But the biggest such project is in Australia, where mineral sands producer Iluka is gearing up to process 1-million tonnes of stockpiled by-products that have been building up at its Eneabba site since the 1990s.

It is building a rare-earths refinery due to open in 2025 that together with related infrastructure is expected to cost between A$1bn and A$1.2bn (about R12bn-14.4bn), helped by a government loan.

New technology

A crucial element to making new projects viable is technology developed to separate the rare earths.

Rainbow will use a new process developed by US company K-Technologies based on ion chromatography, which is common in the pharmaceutical industry and other sectors.

LKAB will send its material for separation to Norway’s REEtec, in which it is the biggest shareholder.

Commodity trader Mercuria also bought a stake in REEtec for a new division that targets metals required for the energy transition.

“REEtec fits the narrative of building processing capacity for rare earths in the part of the supply chain where we think there’s a bottleneck,” said Guillaume de Dardel, head of energy transition metals at Mercuria.

“The company’s technology has a lower environmental footprint compared to the legacy solvent extraction process essentially used for rare earths separation in China.”

In the US, Phoenix Tailings, which is funded mainly by venture capital funds, is using technology developed by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“There’s zero waste, zero emissions and we’re also doing it competitive with Chinese prices. We’re not going to rely on government to fund us,” said CEO Nick Myers.

Prices of rare earths have climbed in recent years, making new projects more viable. Those of NdPr alloy in China, while down from a peak seen last year, have nearly doubled over the past three years.

Six projects outside China plan to extract the critical minerals from waste or byproducts.

The projects will produce rare earths that are needed to fuel a green revolution of electric cars and wind turbines while trying to avert the shortages expected in coming years.

Below are details of the companies and their projects, in order of output of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, those most in demand.

1. Ilkua Resources

The core business of Australia’s Iluka has been extracting zircon and titanium from mineral sands, though it’s building processing plants also to remove rare earths.

It has completed two processing plants and aims to launch the final one, a refinery, in 2025, which will be Australia’s first rare earth separation plant.

The refinery is expected to produce an average of 2,700-tonnes a year of NdPr oxides.

Iluka is initially treating a huge stockpile at Eneabba in Western Australia that has been building up since the 1990s, but will later also use feedstock from other operations.

2. Phoenix Tailings

Privately held US company Phoenix Tailings has developed technology to process rare earths from old mine tailings, and plans to launch operations with waste material from a former iron ore mine in New York.

Phoenix is also arranging to feed its production plant with material from other stockpiles and is expected to produce 2,200-tonnes a year of NdPr metals by 2026, equivalent to about 2,589-tonnes of NdPr oxides, according to Adamas Intelligence.

3. Energy Fuels

US company Energy Fuels’s main business is producing uranium, but it has moved into rare earths.

It started by buying monazite, a byproduct of mineral sands, from chemicals company Chemours to extract rare earths, and has also lined up other sources of the material.

Energy Fuels removes uranium from the monazite and sends mixed rare earth carbonate to be separated by a plant owned by Neo Performance Materials in Estonia.

Energy Fuels plans to open its own separation plant by 2024 and aims to produce 1,500 to 3,000-tonnes a year of NdPr oxides by 2026.

4. Rainbow Rare Earths 

Rainbow plans to reprocess stockpiles left over from phosphate mining since the 1950s at Phalaborwa in Limpopo.

It has teamed up with US firm K-Technologies, whose new system will produce separated rare earth oxides.

Rainbow expects to produce about 1,850-tonnes a year of NdPr oxides by 2026.

5. VHM

Australia’s VHM is working on the Goschen mineral sands project, which will also produce rare earths.

The company has agreed an offtake agreement with China’s Shenghe, which has agreed to buy 6,400 tonnes a year of rare earth mineral concentrate, though VHM plans to build its own refinery in the long term.

Adamas Intelligence has estimated that VHM will produce about 850-tonnes of NdPr oxides in 2027.

6. LKAB

State-owned Swedish iron ore producer LKAB plans to extract rare earths from waste material from two mines that is currently dumped into tailings dams.

The material will be processed at new plants both at the mines and at an industrial park before it is shipped to a refinery at Norway’s REEtec, where rare earths will be separated.

LKAB plans to produce 2,000 tonnes a year of total rare earth oxides from 2027, which Adamas Intelligence estimates contains about 400-tonnes of NdPr oxides.

Reuters